Several years ago, I discovered that there are unlimited paths on which one can travel through this journey we call life. Up to that point, I had done nothing but dream of the day I would play professional soccer. My senior year on the college soccer team was cut short with a bad ankle injury, so I focused on finishing up my degree and graduating.

There I was, just having graduated college where I was receiving my computer science degree and was ready to do what you’re supposed to do, go get a 9-5 job for the next 44 years and retire at age 65. I went to work at a respectable aeronautics company as a Software Engineer. My head was always great with computers, but my heart would never listen to my head. I found a "MLM"/network marketing company shortly after beginning my soon-to-be short lived software engineering career. After paying a LOT of money ($5,000) for a LOT of product, became a "director" at this company. To make a long story short, 6 months later I had $4,900 in products sitting in my parent’s garage, and the network marketing company was involved in a lawsuit and had been completely shut down. I was supposed to get reimbursed some portion of the $5,000 I had invested (after lawyer’s fees and such were taken out), but that was about 7 years ago and I haven’t seen a dime since then.

Fast forward about 4 more years down the road. I was on my 3rd software engineering position and had almost tripled my income from when I first graduated college! This was GREAT, but even then I realized that the reason I was forced to find my 3rd job was because the company at my 2nd job went through a company-wide slashing and laid-off about 2/3 of the entire company. I did NOT like the idea that one day my family would be at the mercy of bosses and VP’s at companies who are only looking out for themselves. I had to do something about this…

I saved up money for several months of expenses, and started exploring many businesses that I could start on my own. I had a short stint with my best friend and one other person. There was a rather successful company they had both worked at before…and said it was going to be easy to recreate everything that their former company had done. We started out, and I quickly left after making 200-300 cold calls per day. (3 ½ years later this company is doing monthly sales of $250,000-$300,000 and all of the owners are making 6 figures…OOPS!) I still talk with my best friend daily and we are always plotting our next big money maker…but I’ll talk more about that in a bit…

I finally chose to start a franchise with my parent’s equity in their home. (After MANY hours of talking with them.) After investing over 6 figures into this franchise, we quickly discovered that we should’ve chosen a much more seasoned franchise. (Of course, we couldn’t have afforded the bigger franchises…) 5 years later, I’ve made around $8,000 from the company (total), and besides paying for all of the employees, taxes, product, rent, etc…we’ve got nowhere besides paying the monthly interest only loan payments to the bank. (This is after working 80-100 hours/week for the first 11 months of the business…where at that point I was forced to find other work because I had to make SOME income to pay my mortgage.)

Finally, after all of these "failures", I found the PERFECT company, a network marketing company. First, after countless of hours of research, let me tell you what to look for in a network marketing company:

1) Solid background. The company you work for should have at LEAST 5 years of history, and it should be POSITIVE history. Look for things like a company that’s traded on the stock market, honors from reputable companies (Business Week, Forbes, etc.)

2) Great leadership. I learned this from Jim Collin’s book, Good to Great. See what the company leaders have done in the past. (i.e. Were they selling magazines from the back of their car before joining this company?) Also – Are any high profile figures endorsing the products? (With a high profile person’s reputation at stake, they will only associate with top products.)

3) Re-usable products. Whatever you’re selling and/or consuming needs to be items that are used up quickly and re-ordered regularly. (Mortgage Refinancing doesn’t work in network marketing because the average person only refinances every 5 years.)

4) In demand products. Example, the health industry is seeing tremendous growth due to all of the baby boomers. This is paired with the life expectancy raising every day. (We’ll be at life expectancy of 120-150 years in no time.) The health field is a GREAT example of a great place to investigate.

5) Solid marketing techniques. There are something like 6 or 8 main models of how a network marketing company can pay it’s associates. Make sure the model of your company is fair, doesn’t require minimums, and is truly residual. (So that if you ever stop growing your business, your income keeps coming in.) Also – How do you find your associates? (Through the internet? Friends and family?) (Read Richard Poe’s Wave 4: Network Marketing in the 21st Century)

6) Do your research. You need to take calculated risks to be successful in anything in life…but make sure you’ve done your research by checking out the BBB (better business bureau). Try to find "dirt" on the company. (Check the validity of the sources claiming the dirt.)

7) How are the products delivered? (Do you need to stock a garage full of products? Can the associates place orders directly?)

8) Great training. Make sure that you will have the proper training and support from your team. You don’t want to be a part of something where you’re totally on your own to figure it out. (This typically relates directly back to the companies compensation plan.)

9) IMPORTANT – How many hours per week do you need to put into the business? Are true passive/residual income techniques employed? (e.g. How do you find your downline? How do they get trained? How much help is your upline?)

10) Make sure you keep your current "linear" income job until your new network marketing company residual income can overtake it!

11) MOST IMPORTANT – Learn how to dream, and also learn how to set goals. (Read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich) 90% of this business is mental. (This is true of any endeavor in life, playing professional sports, achieving great wealth, affecting mass humanity, etc.) EVERYTHING starts with an idea in one person’s head. Conceive it, believe it, achieve it. (Read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point)